Origination
by Dorothy Apple
Summary: How exactly did Rin and Len come to live with their older Vocaloid siblings? This story documents their journey from Crypton to the big city through their eyes.
1. CRYPTON, SNACKS, SHIPMENT

The only time I've ever felt truly alive is when I'm singing. Being only a voice manufactured to sing whatever my master types in, my entire soul is placed on the computer screen to an artist's sketch of what I look like to the world. In truth, this is my real body, the physical form that my voice describes: a fourteen-year-old male whose vocal chords retained a choir boy's tenor, but matured into a much purer sound than many are used to. I am the youngest voice in the collection… sorry, I meant _we_. I am part of a two-box set: my twin is always drawn to the right of me with the same blonde hair and blue eyes, our uniforms the same construction zone yellow and black color scheme. She bears the brand of our existence plain for all to see, a solitary '02' airbrushed in red upon her arm. Below the numbers is a small word in all caps, too small for the hard of sight to glimpse:

'VOCALOID.'

I don't understand why she is considered my sister—Vocaloids don't really have family relations. But since we were packaged together, it's only fair to assume that she is. To this day, people argue whether or not we're brother and sister, or even if we're the same person. There is evidence: we share the same family name, 'Kagamine,' mirrored sound; the people closest to us in our creation have mentioned that she and I are reflections of each other, two children whose voices are virtually one in the same. But as far as our relationship is concerned, you can interpret that as you see fit. 'Rin' is what my other half is called. In addition to being at my right on the cover of our box she is my companion. They created me after she was conceptualized and they named me 'Len.'

The people who are collectively called Crypton raised us in Sapporo, the largest city in the Hokkaidō prefecture of Japan. This is where our elder 'siblings' were raised before our time. We were happy here, but we were also put through rigorous training. Singing is all we really knew then, singing purely for profit and the hopes of being sold to aspiring composers who have no voices for their compositions. But for us it meant more than just reading a page of music. Rin and I sang to each other often—we were always a duet act, powerful in numbers and in vocals. Rin always excelled more than I; something about her sound is always real. She often had to help me when we studied music theory and vocal work. Then we began having these strange, repressed feelings, not that we knew what they were at the time. It was new for us to experience a choked-up sensation and a trembling in our chests after recording sessions. Was it a malfunction? Soon after we could identify basic human emotions based on the music we sang: happiness was always found in major keys and upbeat tempos, sadness thrived in minor keys and slower tempos, and anger soared through violent instrumentals. We acted upon these tones in our vocal inflections. It was the start of a change within us, a change that separated us from our predecessors, and we didn't quite understand or notice fast enough.

Rin and I were also hungry.

We would mistake the emptiness after singing and emotional catharsis for physical hunger. Despite being Vocaloids and able to function without basic human needs, we all tend to eat and enjoy certain foods. We were always told about the strange cravings our brothers and sisters had, and we hoped one day to have that sort of attachment to something other than ourselves. One day it happened. Rin took me to a small room far away from the recording studio—a room lined with vending machines. She began to pick through the basket of fruit in the center of the table. "Could you smell these from the studio?" she asked, "it was driving me crazy!" I hadn't noticed it of course, but she did seem a bit distant during our session. "Go on," she told me hurriedly, a child-like glint in her eyes, "I know you smell something good in there too!" With her long fingernails, Rin peeled an orange apart and separated each slice in the palm of her hand. The citrus smell that sprayed out was too fragrant for my tastes, but it grew immensely on her. I looked at a poster on the wall and saw the trees with their crescent-shaped leaves and immediately my eyes went toward the swinging bananas. I quickly peeled one and bit down into its mushy center. I was sent straight to the tropics, to the island, sitting beneath the banana trees. When I had finished it Rin looked at me and laughed. "Len," she giggled through bits of orange, "Your hair looks like a banana peel!" She then shoved her orange rind into her mouth and flashed an orange grin at me. I laughed and tried doing the same with my banana peel. This was the first time we had ever smiled and laughed together, and it remains a moment that I don't think I'll ever forget.

Our attitudes became quite bitter toward Crypton. We were allowed less and less time to visit the snack room in the week before our national release. Rin was especially bitter about that and threw temper tantrums before them. They still refused us and worked us harder instead (In light of this, we apologize for any songs that may have suffered a lack of quality due to our carelessness.) I especially began feeling the effects of our efforts. I had never really associated tiredness with anything but the sounds of music boxes but exhaustion was creeping in without the aid of a tinkling melody. I shamefully admit to having slept through my entire back-up vocal part during Rin's solo recording. That was our first argument. By themselves, her words hurt worse than any feedback. But what was strange about this was that I could also feel how she was hurting. I had carelessly slept through her first time singing by herself, the first time I would hear her voice standing alone. I caught her shoulders in my arms. A hug. I'd seen people hugging on television screens and in magazine advertisements. The words just slipped naturally out of my mouth, "I'm sorry. Forgive me." She stopped shouting and instead I felt something wet upon my chest when she buried her face there. I pulled her away and touched her cheek. Little drops of water were running down from her eyes and her face was contorted into a great expression of grief, an expression I came to hate seeing on her. "What is this?" she asked me as she wiped her eyes, "why do I suddenly feel this way?" I couldn't answer her, but her returning hug made me feel both warm and cold. My vision blurred and I too felt water on my cheek. That's when I realized: whatever she felt, I would always feel it too.

Crypton sent us out to live with our siblings on schedule. Rin and I trembled in our packages with excitement and fear. What kind of person would our new master be? We had heard so much praise about our siblings, how would they receive us? Despite our upbringing we were quite attached to Crypton, so for them to say their goodbyes to us with smiles on their faces was unbelievably cruel. They meant well for us, and we understand that now, but at that time we were rebels. We didn't understand. And now, the package that bound us tightly for protection were suddenly suffocating... The inside of our box was overwhelmingly suffocating and dark. The sounds of the world outside of what we knew were humming noisily around us. Rin became restless beside me and began clawing at the corners. Eventually she was able to rip open our package from the inside out and turned to me with a short nod. "C'mon!" she said and grabbed my hand. We were inside of a large and boring package truck. It wasn't the most glamorous thing to be travelling in, so we quickly tried to find a way out of it. I noticed the latch on the far side of the vehicle first and I jiggled it open with enough force. The door swung freely on its hinges and I watched the world disappearing quickly beneath the wheels. I tried not to get dizzy. "Jump!" I told her and we both leapt out of the moving truck onto the side of the road in the countryside.


	2. SONG, DQN, ROAD ROLLER

Now we were alone.

We began our journey south toward the airport, talking to each other and singing songs we knew duet parts to. I asked Rin to sing to me the first evening we were on our own under the stars. I stayed awake through the whole thing and not once did I feel sleepy. She pouted. "That song was supposed to be a lullaby, you know." I couldn't help it! If you heard her sing very closely you would be compelled to listen to it all the way through. Our campfire was reduced to glowing coals and the surrounding fireflies lit up the air around us. We were peaceful and at ease, now beginning to understand the true meaning of rest.

The next day I heard a group of people singing a song. I picked up on it and I sang it to Rin. She looked up, words scrolling through her eyes. She was in the database. "It's Dana Dana from the 1940s play, _Esterke_. It was written by Aaron Zeitlin and composed by Sholom Secunda. Written in 2/4 time in the key of G minor, it's an old song written during the times of Nazism, traditionally performed in Yiddish. Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz translated the song into English in 1956; it has since become available to sing in German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian. "

She didn't comment further on the subject and we walked the rest of the way, trying hard to make up our own songs. Even when we reached the airport and took the next flight to Narita, there was nothing to sing about. It remained that way for the next three days we wandered around the city with our hunger unbearable and our legs weary. On the fifth day out, though, something caught our eye. We heard the rumble of Earth and the heavy mechanical whirr of machines further along our path. Amber caution lights flashed in the distance around orange and black blockades. Needless to say we were intrigued by the construction projects up ahead.

It was an empty lot filled with overturned Earth and the start of what would have been a large office tower. There were many yellow machines that rumbled and shrieked at us when we wandered into the site. Rin was fascinated by them all. She took me by the hand and dragged me over to one of them. She looked up and laughed. "Look at this yellow dragon!" I corrected her, "It's an excavator." She gave me a look and ran off toward another machine. "Okay, Mister Smarty-Pants, then what do you call this one?" I smiled at her and followed. "A bulldozer," I said, leaning against the blunt end of the hydraulic blade. Rin gave me another look and went to point at something else, but I interjected: "That's a dump truck. And over there's a loader. Oh and next to the excavator are the crane and a Caterpillar." With a brief shrug of defeat, she laughed and took her place back at my right, taking my arm in hers. "Len knows his heavy construction, doesn't he?" I looked at her. Her gaze went right to the road outside. A massive yellow machine with a large drum at the front slowly advanced in front of the lot, flattening out the concrete and asphalt with an audible hiss. We turned to it and watched as several men in orange vests returned hanging off of the large vehicle; one shouted something very loudly over the machinery. As they began to hop off, many of the machines in the area suddenly fell to a halt. We hid behind a large pile of dirt and watched as men climbed down from the dozers and excavators, heading toward us. We ran a bit further behind and saw just what they saw: snacks. An area littered with lunch boxes and packages of bagged goods.

Our stomachs rumbled anxiously.

The same glint in her eye from when we took all the snacks from the snack room returned. She had an idea. A terrible, awful idea.

"Len," she whispered, "are you tired of walking?" I nodded. "And you know your construction equipment, right?" Again, I nodded. Turning from the food to the vehicle, she spotted a man coming right at us, noticing how out of place we were. She nudged me. "I've got a plan." Now I would have retorted, but she jabbed me again, this time in the stomach. I can't tell you how unfortunate it would be if Rin were ever to jab you in any place, especially near your vital organs. For now, let's assume that you readers out there are the lucky ones.

"Hey," the worker called out, "what are you kids doing here?" I turned toward the noise and raised my hand out to defend Rin. She pushed me aside and confronted the man. She was real pushy when it came to food. He towered over her, his round stomach bounding with every step. He didn't look like the kind of guy who would be pleasant otherwise. Rin put a finger to her lips and, looking back at me with a wink, she talked sweetly to the man. Her posture slumped a little and her voice half-feigned fatigue. "Sir, we just came in from Hokkaido to see our long-lost older sister, and we haven't eaten or slept in days. So we were wandering around and noticed that you have some snacks lying around. If you would be so kind as to give us some, we'd greatly appreciate it." He looked her over with his small eyes, nostrils flaring in thought. "Hokkaido, you say? Then what're you doing out here? You could've just flown right to Tokyo if you wanted." She lowered her head. "Well, we didn't have any money, so we walked." The man gave her an incredulous look. "You walked all the way here? From _Hokkaido_?!" Rin faked a sneeze and made herself tremble. "Well, we did have to swim across..." The man turned to me, still in disbelief. "Is this your brother? You look just like her. Almost like twins." I nodded again and, noticing how Rin was glaring daggers at me as she faked a throaty cough, I came up with my alibi. Many other workers heard Rin talking and began to gather around. I held Rin close and shivered. I had to be convincing too. "Listen, sis. I'm gonna try calling _nee-san_ again. I'll go find a pay phone, so I'll come get you when I've got a hold of her." She kept me in a death grip, her fingernails digging into my arms painfully. "You promise, right? You won't leave me too?" she said with tearful desperation, "you can't leave! Not like mommy and daddy, _please_ Len! Promise me you'll come back!" I stroked the back of her head and let her bury her face in my chest. "It'll be all right, Rin. I won't leave you, I promise." She gave out an audible whimper and rested her chin on my shoulder. She was faking tears. "I'll score us some food. You grab the rolly machine," she whispered. I was in no condition to object, so I got up and left her in the middle of the sympathetic group of workers who were already offering their lunches. What a bunch of saps.

Then my mind raced. Rin may or may not have them giving her surplus supplies of snacks by melting their hearts with more heart-wrenching stories about our fake childhood. I don't think I had much time. Immediately I flew behind the wooden fence and looked up the giant drum of a front wheel in front of me. _A road roller_. It made no noises whatsoever and no one sat inside behind the wheel. The window was open. I climbed up and into the vehicle (which is harder than it seems,) taking my place at the driver's seat. The seat was a cold and somewhat uncomfortable bench. If this was going to be our mode of transportation, I would have to discuss with Rin the benefits of upholstery. My knees brushed against a cold metal that jingled. The keys were still in the ignition. I could feel a smile slowly growing on my face as my hand reached out to turn the key, to bring the machine to life.

I had to see how Rin's end of the plan was coming.

Looking out the back window of the road roller, I noticed how much she had acquired in so little time. Bags and bags of snack food, sandwiches, rice balls, and bento boxes were lined up before her. But then I saw—that greedy cow! She was eating all of them without me! Upset about these turn of events, I took the key and jerked it to the side.

The road roller idled, a mechanical skipping of gears, and then the engine loudly roared and sputtered. My hand flew to the stick shift and I threw the machine in reverse at high speed, carelessly careening into the construction site. Many of the men leapt out of the way and shouted at me. "Who's driving this thing?" From within my rear-view mirror, I saw Rin swipe a large tablecloth from a crate and she began to swaddle the snacks. At once, I realized my mistake. She shot me one of the most horrifying looks and climbed up onto the road roller. The men looked at her, outraged. "B-But we thought you were nice kids! And now look what you did! You flattened everything out!" Since I had to apply the brakes while in reverse, the machine let out this horrible grinding noise. I shifted out of reverse and into park. Rin smiled and imitated the noise with a loud "WRYYYYYYY," throwing the sack of food into the passenger's seat. "That's right," she said with a haughty laugh, "we'll drive you all flat into the ground! If you ever aspire to become a vocalist in the future, watch out! Because it's our voices you're going to be hearing a lot in the music industry!" The construction workers were outraged. The one that approached us first stepped forward. "Give us back our snacks and our road roller, you delinquents!"

I turned and watched Rin to see what she was going to say next. At first I could see her test the name out. _Ro... Roada Rolla_… _Road Roller_. What she said next is probably one of the best things I've ever heard. Better than any song, better than any praise. She brushed her hair to the side and pulled up her shorts, rubbing her thumb off her nose. "It's _my_ road roller now!" Really, it was awe-inspiring. Then she turned to me and jumped in next to me, leaning out the window as I put the road roller into drive. She let out the same yell as before, and added as we drove away, "Don't forget-- Vocaloid Twin Wonders Kagamine Rin and Len swiped your snacks and drove you flat!" They chased after us, shouting "don't you ever come again!" and "DQN! DQN!" and "You kids don't have a license for that thing!"

Once we were far enough away from them we laughed about our triumph, slapping each other on the arm and thigh. Then Rin gave me a shove. "You thought I wasn't going to get you some snacks too, didn't you?" I turned to her and saw that she was pouting angrily. I leaned back into my seat, increasing the speed of our yellow machine. "Yeah, but only because you were stuffing your face like some fat pig!" She punched me so hard I called out, "I was just kidding! Sheesh. Ow!" She punched me again in the same place. "I was just trying to soften them up a little bit more, but then you had to go in and flatten everything out!" I shot back, "well the plan was pretty vague, you could've at least told me about it!" She countered, "but I just made the plan up on the spot! Improvisation? Hellooo?" I didn't have anything to argue against that, so I shook my head and turned my eyes back on the road.

Then she rubbed my arm, trying to make up for what she did. "Len," she started quietly, "I'm going to make you a promise right now. Don't laugh, okay?" I nodded. "Good. Then I promise that whenever we do stupid pranks like these we'll plan them far in advance. And also, if there are snacks involved we will always get the same amount of snacks, got it?" I pulled into a grassy field and stopped the road roller, thinking about it for a while before turning to look at Rin. She looked… I don't know, cute? Her cheeks were pink, but she looked frustrated at something. And I felt myself starting to snicker at how ridiculous the notion was. She caught my shoulders bounding, my hand over my mouth, and she shook me. "Hey! You promised you wouldn't laugh!" I stopped and ruffled her hair. She smoothed it out in annoyance. "Yeah yeah, I'm sorry." Then I thought about it again and gave her a smile, holding out my pinky. "So, it's a promise then? I'll get snacks too?" Rin smiled back after combing her hair with her fingernails, reaching into her sack of goodies to pull out a bento box. She wrapped her little pinky around mine and opened the box to reveal tiny octopus weenies with rice balls and soy sauce. My stomach growled at the sight.

"It's a promise," she said. With a toothpick she skewered a weenie and offered it to me with a cupped hand. She kept feeding me weenies until I was crying. They were so good! She laughed at me. "You're so stupid with food, Len." Then I took a rice ball and pressed it to her lips until she opened her mouth to chew on it. We spent the rest of the night eating until we were full, laughing about today's events until our sides were sore, and singing praises to our road roller until we went to sleep.


	3. UNLICENSED, WRYYYY, SEPARATION

"_To Crypton and our trusted friends:_

_We wanna thank you all for raising us from up until to-day._

_But now the time has come for us to leave home_

_We'll start our journeying right away—"_

"—With our Road Roller!" Rin sang back with a giggle after previously fumbling over the lyrics. This was our song for Master, a song that we would sing to him once we arrived at his house in the city. In spite of our excitement we laughed together at how quickly this song came to us. "I think the second line still sounds funny," she said, "the way the syllables are separated at the last bit is weird." I gave her a look and tugged the bow on her headband loose. "Well let's see you come up with something better!" She stuck her tongue out at me in response and gave my ponytail a playful tug. We were too happy with ourselves to argue. I laughed again, noticing how much my chest heaved and warmed each time I did so. "Okay. From the second chorus?" She nodded, fixing her bow, and opened her mouth to sing.

The sound of a dozen car horns came out of her mouth.

Confused by the noise, she turned around in the seat beside me and looked out of the rear-view window to find the source. There were quite a line of cars and trucks and buses that honked their horns and blasted music at us. She groaned and turned around in a huff. "Len, can't this thing go any faster?" I shook my head. Though it had the potential of being a very fast construction vehicle, our road roller was not made to go as fast as a sports car. "But _Lennn_," she whined, "you made it go fast the last time!" I argued, "Road rollers are only meant to flatten gravel, tar, and asphalt." Now she was getting annoying. She gave me this teary-eyed look and put her hands expectantly on my leg. "But—"

Someone beeped loudly again and leaned out his car window. "Hey! You're holding up traffic!" Rin's expression changed; she let out a frustrated growl and leaned out the window, shouting back at him: "Cool it man, okay? We're trying to make it go faster!" The driver narrowed his eyes at us and shook his fist. "Didn't they teach you kids to respect your elders? And how old are you anyway? Do you even have a license for that thing?" I shrank in my seat, mortified. Again with the license lecture. Rin was practically sitting on the window now, ready to climb out. "I'll have you know that Len is a master road-rollerist! And our road roller isn't any ordinary road roller! In fact--" I grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back into the passenger's seat. I turned my head out the window to the driver. "It's all right, sir! I'll pull over here." With that I turned the steering wheel to the left and allowed the flow of traffic to resume.

Rin was livid. "Len!" But I cut her off. "Road rollers are construction machines. They're not meant to go ninety kilometers an hour all the time." Rin frowned and leaned her head out the window to check on something. Then she turned back toward me and said, "But our road roller looks brand new! And you were able to make it go that fast when we took it from the construction site, free of charge!" I held my head in my hand. "You mean we stole it," I corrected her. Rin took my chin in her hand, then lightly grabbed my cheeks and squished them together. "Nah, they gave it to us. It's not our fault they wanted it back at the last minute." This argument was getting silly. We both broke into fits of giggling. After relieving my head I became more resolute. "This road roller can't take going at high speeds, end of discussion." She sat back down and crossed her arms over her chest with a fuss. We drove very slowly on the road shoulder without saying a word for a brief moment. Then she started singing another variation of the first chorus to herself as if to prove she could come up with better lyrics. _"Dear Crypton and our trusted friends… for all… your… guidance up until… this point, we wanna say thank you… but now the time has come for us to leave home… we're on our… journey to… make our… debut…?_ hmm._"_ I could feel her eyes watching me, expecting some kind of response. She sang the line over and over again, correcting herself until she eventually went back to my lyrics. She looked at me again but I was still concentrating on driving. After a while she gave a distressed sigh and slumped in her seat. "How much longer?" she complained, rolling her head from side to side, "Len, sing with me. It'll pass the time it takes to get to Master's house." Reluctantly I pulled the pitch pipe from out of my pants pocket, blew F #, and began singing with her. We always fumbled over lyrics and harmonies, so we ran through both choruses again. It was around the fourth or seventh attempt that it hit me. That's right. That's why we were on this journey and that's why we got the road roller—to get to the city and to get to Master as quickly as possible. There was no doubt in my mind that there was a song waiting for us and the longer the journey, the further out goal of stardom fled.

I slammed on the brakes and the vehicle skidded to a halt. Rin was flung forward, turning to me with a look of incredulousness. I hurled myself in her direction… well, more so to the tablecloth full of snack rations at her feet. She cried out in protest as I dug through and pulled out a small bag of Koala's March snacks. "Why aren't you driving?" she asked, a bit on the edgy side. I popped the bag open and snagged a little cookie for myself. When I bit down into it, there was that familiar flavor again and a flash of the tropics before my eyes. I motioned toward the swaddle of goods with a smile that trembled. "We can't drive a road roller at full speed without a little pick-me-up, right?" At first she gave me this kind of slack-jawed look. It's fun to watch excitement grow on someone's face, especially on that of a vocaloid. It's impressive how far we've come from just happiness, sadness, anger, and calmness. We were so limited to feeling back with Crypton. Is this what it meant to live in the world? Is this the freedom of expression we had heard so much about?

Rin pulled out a pack of Hi-Chew snacks and popped a few of the gummy treats in her mouth. As she reveled in her juicy snacks, I pushed my foot down hard against the pedal and, as we gained speed, I threw the stick up one gear at a time. The pauses in between were enough to propel Rin out of her seat and out of the window, where the climbed up on top of the road roller. I heard her feet clattering above my head and the sound of her delightful scream over the squealing of the wheels and the clamor of the flattening drum. There was an awful grinding noise and everything trembled around us; I heard Rin's feet scuffle backwards as if she were losing her balance against the wind rushing past. As I shifted up to the highest gear possible I turned the wheel back to the right, looking back to make sure no one would hit us. Just as I did that, though, the ear-splitting crunch of metal and the terrified screams of people called out in front of us. I didn't know what had happened until the road roller bumped around violently. Looking back once more, the car in front of us had been flattened out completely, its owner somehow alive and standing beside the wreckage with a disbelieving look on his face.

Rin called out after the people in front of us: "Road-a Roll-a!" And those caught in the path of our road roller fled from their vehicles in the midst of the mid-day traffic. Every single one of those cars, I guarantee you, were flattened right out. It delighted us because it was just too much fun! We felt powerful as we plowed our way through the road congestion. Rin let out a great yell high above the whine of the vehicle itself in our freak moment of rapture and exhilaration. Nothing stood in the way of our conquest on the road to the city.

Then we heard the police sirens closing in. Suddenly the wind in my hair and the sounds of crunching vehicles weren't appealing at all. Now my mind panicked. Rin climbed back in beside me. "Punch it!" she shouted at me. I shouted back at her, "It won't go any further!" I pumped on the accelerator to confirm my point. We were coming into Tokyo hot, but the police were hotter on our trail. I blurted out our only option, turning to Rin with decision. "We've got to leave the road roller." She predictably refused. "But it's our road roller! We can't just leave him for the cops!" So now it had a gender? "Rin, think about it—if we get caught here, we'll never get to live with Master and sing with everyone! We'll be labeled delinquents for real, and chances are he won't want us around." She looked torn between both. She looked back at the oncoming row of wailing sirens and then she looked down out the passenger's window to the door. She patted it with two hard slams and struggled with her decision. We were getting so close to the hub of the city. "Quickly!" And then I heard the loud clunk of the side door swing open and crash against the side. "Hit the brakes and about face!" she shouted out. My knuckles were turning white. "Are you crazy?!" She urged me with the hoarsest voice. "_Just do it, you idiot!_" I had no other option but to do so. I threw my weight to the left and the road roller tipped and screeched in a U-turn, throwing us violently at an angle before it teetered and settled. We were now facing the barricade of police cars.

It's obvious when Rin gets an idea, in case you hadn't noticed by now. And I didn't like the looks of this one.

The lights glared angrily at us. Officers rose from their cars and stood their ground, warily watching us as one of their own approached with a megaphone. Rin scrambled up onto the roof. We heard a mechanical click and high-pitched feedback before we heard a voice speak. "You are the, uh, 'Wonder Twins Kagamine Rin and Len,' correct? We've gotten complaints from the Hotel construction site in Chiba. You not only robbed them of their lunch, but also you stole their road roller." Rin stomped her foot. "We didn't steal anything!" she objected, "they gave all of it to us out of pity!" The officer shook his head. "That is not included in their official complaint. And is it also true that you are unlicensed?" I seethed and stuck my head out. "We're fourteen years old, you idiot, what do you think? Of course we have no license for this thing! Any moron could see that!" He seemed taken aback. "You're both coming with me!"

Before I could say anything further, Rin started to laugh. It sounded like the laughter of a pretentious aristocrat. I could feel something coming on. She took a breath and started to sing. _"WRYYYYY-YYYYY-YYYYN…"_ My hand eagerly tapped on the stick as I leaned out the window and started singing with her, slowly:

"_Be sure to make us sing a neat little song and treat us well,_

_or else we just might get a little mad at ya!_

_We're not some juvenile delinquents, you know!_

_If you say that we'll run you over_

_With our road roller!"_

I revved the engine again. The officer scurried back to the blockade with his megaphone still on and whining in fear. "Y-you DQN brats! Get out of that thing immediately!" Rin laughed again and tapped her foot lightly above me. "Hear that, Len? Did you hear what the mean old policeman called us?" I looked up and smiled the same smile she no doubt had on her face and pressed down harder on the gas, causing the road roller to screech ferociously. "Well, we warned him…" She pointed at the barricade of officers and said, "Prepare yourselves for the flattening of a lifetime!" With that I threw the vehicle into full gear and let out a yell as we leapt toward the cars with a roar. The men were screaming, fleeing for their lives as we chased them down the road, flattening their cars and hats and megaphones. Rin taunted them. "What's wrong? Can't handle little fourteen-year-olds on construction equipment? Well that's what you get for calling us delinquents! Now run along and leave us alone!"

We were manic. Each of those officers were scared back into Chiba and we were able to turn back and head into Tokyo. We cheered the whole way, pretending to be the homecoming heroes of a great war, singing more glorified anthems to our road roller and ourselves. The people in the cramped buildings and on the streets cast weird looks at us the whole way, but we didn't care. The celebrations were cut short when I realized that we may be sought out after that stunt. Before we made it too deep into the city, we had to get rid of our cherished road roller. After hours of negotiation with Rin, she reluctantly agreed to it. We wandered around until we found a secluded area in a park to stow it safely away from sight. It was a tearful goodbye for all of us, but we had to find our new home and sing to Master even if it meant leaving behind an incriminating friend. We didn't even make it past the park exit when I felt my identical companion tugging at my sleeve. "Len," Rin said to me after her hysterics were over, "you wouldn't happen to know where Master lives, would you?" I went through my memory, trying to find the address. It had to be embedded somewhere… Got it! "Some place called Hamamatsu…"

There was a bit of silence between us as I mapped out the coordinates, suddenly being overcome with a feeling of dread as the map came clearly into view. My arm buckled in pain when Rin's fist collided with it. All of the stress from our joyride caught up to us. She began rambling: "Idiot! Didn't I tell you we should have stowed away on the flight to Cyubu? But _noooo_, you wanted to see the sights in Tokyo! Oh, _Tokyo!_ The big city where traffic abounds and the police are at every corner! But now we're exactly where we shouldn't be because of you!" I argued back, "My fault? _My_ fault? You're the one that provoked those cops, so it's your fault too!" Why was I losing my temper? My face and hands were trembling and hot. "If you hadn't stolen those snacks in the first place, none of this would have happened!" She stomped her foot, getting in my face. "Well I wouldn't have had to take all of those snacks if you hadn't taken the road roller!" And I shot back, "But you told me to take it! You're always making stupid plans and being reckless!"

She stepped back in shock, almost as if my words had shot her. She retaliated, "And you're always a tattle-tale know-it-all! Look, you think you're so smart? You find your way to Master, and I'll take the road roller and find him my own." I am ashamed to admit that I was pretty miffed at this point, so I dismissed her. "Fine." She turned back into the park and yelled back at me, "Fine!" And we kept yelling at each other until I couldn't hear her voice or see her retreating through the bushes. We were going our separate ways now. In the silent aftermath of our argument I breathed a shaky sigh of resignation. My body moved on its own, walking away from the park and into the bustling metropolis alone.

* * *

_((A/N: Feel free to correct me at anytime about the kilometer thing. For the sake of Americans like myself that are metric system stupid, Wikipedia says 50 km/h = 30 mph and usually people fly by doing 70 mph on the highways up where I live on average. Thank you for pointing out that the second chapter was totally inspired by "Drive! Drive Me Flat!" :D That song and "It's My Road Roller!" are basically my favorites. I love the idea of Rin and Len being scary little delinquents ruining everything… but they're not bad in this story, right? You'll give them snacks, _RIGHT?

_I think this sequence moved in a little too fast, but I'm just trying to drag out the ending longer, just so this story's not four chapters long. Might try writing from Rin's perspective next…))_


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